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Revenge From Mars
We got a dirty, routed example
of this fine game and here are
some preliminary pictures. |
Cabinet wear! |
Dirt build-up! |
Ramp rust! |
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Scoop hole wear! |
Cabinet dings! |
PCB dust! |
Playfield dirt! |
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The demise of the Pinball2000 platform has to be the most tragic story ever in the
pinball industry. This brilliant design was stopped by the closure
of Williams pinball operations just after it was introduced.
From a technical standpoint, the advances
and refinements over previous designs are too numerous to mention.
There is genius everywhere you look on this machine; from the PC-based
control system to the combining-mirror technology to the interactive
video graphics to the incredible sound design and reproduction. It
boggles the mind to think that nothing like this will ever be made again,
in all likelihood.
Check out Greg Maletic's great
documentary, The Future of
Pinball and George Gomez's
comments from Expo
'99 to get a feel for what was lost here. What could have
been! |
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RFM Network card config utility
RFM's program code includes drivers for
one particular network card: the SMC 8416T. Since these cards are
no longer available, the used examples being sold by surplus houses are
often configured for other applications and won't work in RFM without
reconfiguration.
Click here
to download the SMC EZstart utility zip file, then unzip the contents to
a bootable floppy disk.
Using an older PC with an ISA slot and
a floppy disk drive, you can put the network card in the PC and boot it
from the floppy disk and reconfigure the card. It should be set to
Plug and Play, with the boot ROM disabled.
If the PC has no video output with the
network card installed, you can carefully remove the ROM chip from the
network card, reinstall it in the PC, then use the config utility.
The ROM is not used by RFM anyway, so it can be left out or replaced
once the card is configured correctly. |
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RFM
Power Audio |
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RFM has the best factory sound system
ever put on a pinball machine. Why stop there? Here's what I
did to mine: |
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My kind of topper! That's a pair of
Alesis shielded reference monitor speakers. They are powered by a
car-audio amplifier on the back of the game. The speakers have
heavy steel shielding built in to allow placement close to video
equipment. |
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A 550 watt computer power supply runs the
amp and a subwoofer bass tube. The game can be made to boom you
out of the room! |
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RFM Monitor experiments
| The game uses a
CGA monitor to display its graphics. At 640 X 240 pixels
and 15kHz scan frequency, most modern computer monitors cannot
display the image; an "arcade monitor" is required.
Unless, that is, special equipment is used: |
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Shown in the picture to the right
is a test setup using the RFM computer connected to a standard,
modern LCD computer monitor via a Sony 1024HD digital scan
converter.
The scan converter de-interlaces the video and scales it to fit
the SXGA resolution (1280 x 1024). Other resolutions are
user-selectable with this unit.
The plan is to replace the RFM's old arcade monitor with a
modern, glass-tube computer monitor or high-res arcade monitor,
using the scan converter to handle the video. |
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LCD monitors, while easy to use
and inexpensive, are not suitable for the Pinball 2000 platform
due to their poor contrast ratio when compared to CRT monitors.
When properly adjusted, the vibrant color, brightness and
contrast of a CRT provides the best gaming experience because
the player cannot see the monitor borders - the images from the
monitor seem to float on the pinball playfield. Even the
best LCD monitors cannot reproduce the crushed black or the 100%
whites of a CRT...yet. |
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Detail of the Sony scan convertor. This is a piece of
professional broadcast equipment and not cheap!
It does, however, provide top-quality results as shown in the
following photos... |
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Close-up of the test monitor.
Note the absence of any scanlines. |
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The apparent blurred edges are
created by the scan converter's interpolation between the
source's scanlines. This is live anti-aliasing in action! |
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By showing the RFM command shell,
the limitations of the LCD monitor for this application become
apparent. Clearly visible are the individual pixels.
CRT monitors blend away these pixels, creating a more analog
look. |
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The system menu never looked so good! |
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Close-up detail. |
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| The next update to this
page will be when the replacement monitor is installed and operational. |
